This small Mosque ( Jamia Masjid) which was earlier a Jain or Shiva temple.

Jamia Masjid as seen in 1910

The Jamia Masjid, dated 1585-86, was built by Sher Khan. This mosque is just 50 meters away from the ruined Shiva temple. It has still got many of its inner walls with Jain or Shiva scripts and the king was unable to remove all the art work inside the temple as he did for Safa masjid, which was also earlier a Shiva temple. No one is allowed entry into this as it is under ASI.

Jamia Masjid as seen in 2010

The fort has two mosques or masjids, namely the Safa Masjid and Jamia Masjid; the former mosque is the most frequented by the Muslim population of the city of Belgaum. Safa masjid was completed in 1519 by Asad Khan Lari (testified by the Persian inscription). The Mosque’s pillars have exquisite inscriptions in a fusion of Nagari and Persian styles. It is also said that two of the pillars here are from Hindu temples and have Kannada inscriptions in Nagari scripts; one pillar dated to 1199 AD is credited to Ratta King Kartaveerya IV and the other pillar dated to 1261 AD is credited to Sevuna (Yadava) Krishna.

With so much history near us we are not aware of this. Seeing the current condition of this monument our future generations will have to only see it on AAB.